Save and Conserve

Isn't it remarkable that America still doesn't have an offshore wind farm? We really need to do better ... and it looks as though the Cape Wind development (near Nantucket in Massachusetts) is going to happen. Better late than never, eh?

The US Department of Energy tells us:

The Interior Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) has issued a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the Cape Wind Energy Project and finds no major environmental impacts from the proposed project.

The MMS report (warning: 5Mb PDF) includes the following:

• Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound is environmentally and economically superior to the alternative sites that were studied.
• Cape Wind will reduce regional emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) by 880,000 tons per year. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that causes climate change.
• Cape Wind will reduce regional air pollution emissions such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide that harm human health.
• Cape Wind will create hundreds of jobs.
• Cape Wind will provide a needed supply of electricity and improve electric diversification and reliability.
• Cape Wind will go a long way toward Massachusetts being able to achieve its renewable energy requirements under the State's Renewable Portfolio Standard.
• Cape Wind will not have major impacts on birds, fish, marine mammals, fishing, tourism, or on sea or air navigation.

On the bright side, it has only taken about 7 years and $100 oil to make people see that the list above makes a lot of sense in a lot of different ways for a lot of different people. Baby steps ...